People

Director

Jayden Ali is the Founding Director of the practice and oversees all projects. He is a Senior Lecturer on Central Saint Martins’ MArch Architecture course, is a trustee of Open City/Open House and a columnist at Elephant Magazine. He is a Mayor’s Design Advocate, is part of the Hackney Regeneration Design Advisory Group and sits on the London Legacy Development Corporation Quality Review Panel. Jayden has been recognised as a key voice in architecture ‘shaping a new future for London’ by the Design Museum, Wallpaper Magazine and the Architecture Foundation, and is included within the Architects’ Journal’s prestigious ’40 Under 40’ list. Jayden is the co-curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2023.

Snr Architect

Abby is leading on the design of the exhbition spacesinside the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new east London outpost and has been instrumental in developing projects such as Mare Street South and the V&A’s Fashioning Masculinities exhibition. Abby’s work champions social and spatial changes that are truly designed with, and are representative of, the people that enliven them. Before joining JA Projects, Abby worked at Harrison Stringfellow on a number of socially driven projects with third sector organisations, from inner city riding schools in disused theatres to multi-generational community gardens. She has delivered numerous installations, events and exhibitions for different organisations, which however temporary, evoke lasting impressions and she regularly delivers illustration commissions for arts and charitable organisations such as Turn2Us and Melodic Distraction.

Urban Designer and Co Design Lead

Cameron has contributed to projects across the fields of strategic masterplanning, town-centre renewal and the public realm improvement. He is interested in projects that have a strong focus on engagement and co-design, with an emphasis on working with project stakeholders to deliver work that is representative of their needs and desires. Cameron’s approach to architecture is rooted in a desire to deliver embedded projects with a strong sense of social and environmental sustainability.  At JA Projects Cameron has is leading our contribution to Old Oak West, in a team led by Gort Scott for OPDC. He has delivered our community and social infrastructure focused Place Making Vision for Redchurch Street and led the engagement and co-design programme for Queen’s Market in Newham. Before joining JA Projects, he co-founded the Civic Soup collective in Scotland in 2016 and has worked on construction projects across the UK and in Madrid, Stuttgart and Mumbai. 

Researcher

Brian has a background in architecture and art history. Passionate about cities and cultures, he has assisted in research for competition and commissioned projects at JA projects. As an Architecture and Historic Urban Environments graduate from UCL, the hidden stories of the built environment and their heritage value is the key focus of his research. Growing up between Europe and Asia, the complexities in bridging different cultural backgrounds and world views underpin research around urbanism and design. Before joining JA projects, he worked in Italy to restore historical Palazzos in Tuscany with Baciocchi Associati.

Designer

At JA Projects Divya is working on the new V&A East Galleries and has completed the exhibition design for Genetic Automata at the Wellcome. She is interested in exploring elements of contemporary culture, such as language and beauty and uses techniques found in these fields as architectural design tools. Her work focuses on harnessing non-conventional methodologies from multiple disciplines, such as performance, urban theory, and popular culture to challenge and decolonise traditional systems both in and out of architecture. Before JA Projects, Divya has worked on bespoke residential design at Maybank and Matthews, and retail design, events and floristry at And Flowers London.

Snr Architect

Alice is central to the JA Projects’ commitment to housing delivery, leading the Tustin Estate Regeneration team designing two streets of infill social housing reflecting and tying into the existing character of the estate. She led the practice’s contribution to a large mixed-use regeneration scheme within the Silvertown Quays masterplan, Newham. Her experience includes working within the public and private sector delivering cultural and housing projects. Prior to JA Projects, Alice worked at Caruso St John and Gort Scott Architects. Notably, Alice led Gort Scott's Central Parade project, a cultural hub, and workspace in Walthamstow awarded the NLA Mayor’s Award and London RIBA Award in 2017 & 2018 respectively. Alice was also assistant Creative Director for Greenpeace, designing and project managing the Greenpeace field at Glastonbury.

Snr Architect

Héloïse is an architect, urban engineer and spatial designer with extensive experience working within the architecture, design and fashion industries. At JA projects, Heloise led an interdisciplinary team designing a new retrospective on The Art of Menswear for the Victoria and Albert Museum. Fashioning Masculinities is the first major V&A exhibition to celebrate the power, artistry and diversity of masculine attire and appearance. Previous to JA Projects, she has worked on prestigious projects, including the renovation of Francis Bacon’s house, and seminal events for eminent clients such as Balenciaga, Alexander Wang and Dior, while at creative agencies Obo and My Beautiful City. She has led projects in iconic venues such as the Royal Academy and the British Museum and is currently working on events linked to the music industry.

Operations

Siobhan brings to JA Projects 10 years’ experience in developing multi-partner, cross-sector projects that connect culture, creativity and enterprise in ground-breaking ways. Here, she oversees daily activities across the administrative and organisational side of the practice from supporting external partner and client liaison, resource, strategy and internal/external communications. Before JA Projects, she managed external partnerships and projects for Spatial Practices at Central Saint Martins, and was Festival Manager at London Design Festival, the world’s leading design event, overseeing its residency at the V&A museum. As a Cultural Studies and Arts Management postgraduate, she has a passion for organisations and practitioners that make you discover and see things differently through design and creativity.